


drop the darkness in and watch it grow

by inquisitor_tohru



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Exegol, F/F, Holding Hands, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Sith Science, Snoke Clones, The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:15:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24791458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inquisitor_tohru/pseuds/inquisitor_tohru
Summary: Rey and Rose return to Exegol to search the Sith Laboratory.
Relationships: Rey/Rose Tico
Comments: 10
Kudos: 13
Collections: Multifandom Horror Exchange (2020)





	drop the darkness in and watch it grow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nununununu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nununununu/gifts).



Death clung to Exegol like a shroud, stale and suffocating. Even with Palpatine gone, or perhaps _because_ he was gone, the flow of the Force in the laboratory was erratic and made Rey's head hurt and her mouth feel dry. She was grateful for Rose's steadying hand when she almost tripped over a bundle of wires - clearly health and safety regulations had been about as important to her grandfather as they were to Unkar Plutt, though she doubted he'd entertained much. Judging by Rose's expression, you didn't need to be able to feel with the Force to sense the intense and inherent _wrongness_ of this place. They stopped in front of a cylindrical tank, bathed in its sickly yellow-green light.

"Is that-" Rey nodded. Inside the tank, marinating in an unknown viscous liquid, was an alien body identical to Snoke's, right down to the scar that formed a crack from above his right eye, and up across his marbled forehead. In the next tank there was another, and then another, each hooked up to a multitude of tubes. The wires that had caused Rey to lose her footing were attached to various medical equipment and devices that she was unfamiliar with. She turned to Rose, but she only shook her head.

"I've never seen anything like it," she whispered, as if the not-Snokes might be listening in, and Rey couldn't blame her for considering it. "It's far more sophisticated than anything the First Order had on their star destroyers, let alone anything the Resistance has access to."

"Because it's connected to the Force." Rey bit her lip. The whole thing reeked of Sith science, or alchemy, or whatever they might have called it. "It's hard to explain, but I think it's a little like my lightsaber - in the sense this device, whatever it is, harnesses and amplifies energy."

"Kyber crystals." While Rey had been adjusting to the gloom, prodding at echoes and memories in the Force, Rose had taken out her flashlight to actually _look_ at the damn thing. The infuriating curved and angular lines of the Sith runes further confirmed her suspicions.

"I think," she said, looking directly into the nearest clone's dull eyes, "that this was used for some sort of conduit." She swallowed hard, sweat trickling down her back. In other parts of the laboratory, there were pockets of nothingness when she reached out to the Force, as if nothing and no one had ever existed in that space. But here-

Here was a verifiable _hotbed_ of Force energy.

The jumble of information was dizzying. Nauseating, even, and seemingly impossible to make sense of at first - little more than dark ripples lapping at the edges of her consciousness. For one fraught moment she thought she saw the clone twitch, but it was only an air bubble in one of the tubes.

"Rey?" Rose's hand was on her shoulder, cool and comforting, and it was only then that Rey realised she'd fallen to her knees. She placed her own hand over Rose's and squeezed to let her know she was okay, or as okay as she could be while the Force was bombarding her with more memories than she'd had in her lifetime.

"Soul siphoning," she said softly. "That's what this was for." Whoever "Snoke" had once been, he was very, very old. Hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years old.

And he'd been dying.

She tasted bile at the back of her throat, thinking about the way Palpatine had used him, along with so many others.

"Is he alive?" Rose asked, taking a tentative step towards the tank. Even in this place, with only that awful light to illuminate her features, she was achingly beautiful in that way that made Rey's stomach feel weird. She shuffled closer to Rose...and the tank.

"It seems like he's in a state of suspended animation," she said, thoughtful. Could the Snoke she'd met have been an imitation of this being? The echoes in the Force pulsed with malice here, but whether this being, frozen in time, was the source or whether it was simply the residue of Palpatine's sinister machinations was unclear. Unfortunately, she could only think of one way to find out for sure. Rose sighed.

"You're thinking about waking him up, aren't you?" Rey opened her mouth, and sensibly shut it again as Rose gave her _that_ look. It was dangerous, potentially for them _and_ for 'Snoke', and there was a fairly high probability that it was a stupid idea. But Rey couldn't shake off the feeling that leaving him here to wither away was a waste, and worse - that it was cruel.

 _"He_ isn't Supreme Leader Snoke."

"We don't know who he is," Rose said, and she wasn't wrong. She paused, scrutinizing every wrinkle and scar carved into his ancient face. "But perhaps that _is_ a reason to at least give him a chance. Maybe he was working with Palpatine, or maybe he was imprisoned. What about the others?" She nodded towards the floating body in the next tank, arms held up in front of its face as if cowering, anticipating a blow that never came.

"No. They're like...shells?" It felt like the wrong word to describe a living, breathing body, but she could think of no other. The body was there, but the essence - the mind, or soul, if you wanted to call it that - was long gone.

"Ah. The ghost has left the machine." Perhaps it was because of the lab's tense, heavy atmosphere, but Rey let out a high-pitched laugh that made Rose jump, bumping elbows with her as she fumbled with the flashlight. "C'mon, Rey. I know I'm hilarious but that was hardly my _best_ work."

"Sorry, sorry. This place just has me on edge. It's weird. _Unnatural._ " Now Rose laughed.

"No shit." She reached for Rey's calloused mechanic's hand with her own calloused mechanic's hand, lacing their fingers together. "But you're not alone here. We're in this together." Rey gave her hand a squeeze and returned her attention to the first 'Snoke', wondering what his true name was, and whether he was anything like the Snoke she encountered in the _Supremacy's_ throne room.If Snoke's purpose had been fulfilled, why had Palpatine and the Sith Eternal bothered to keep the original in stasis? Who exactly _was_ he, and where did he come from? Knowing what to expect this time, she reached out to the Force once again, but it was still too difficult to pinpoint anything through the myriad of memories. She turned to face Rose and, together, they adjusted the levers, one by one.

The light in the tank shone a brilliant green.

Blue eyes sparkled like jewels.

He smiled.


End file.
